Another really good one from book II is the prelude in C minor. It's pretty intense.

I have just finished learning Bach's 2-part invention in d minor and I've had about 4 or 5 piano lessons in my life, some 2 years ago. Any tips? am I crazy for attempting it?

Heh, that's actually kind of funny--I'm just finishing learning that one, too. Apparently it's pretty easy as far as two-part inventions go, but it still took me a while to get it. Oh well...I'm learning the one in F major now, and it's a lot of fun. You should check it out.

On the whole, though, I think the fugues are more comparable to the three-part inventions (difficulty-wise) than the two-part inventions. I can't play any of the ones from WTC yet, but then again I'm a total noob and have only been playing piano for like a year.

Bach's Fugues are notoriously difficult. I suck at counterpoint, so in the mean time I'm trying to learn is Invention in B minor, while working on some other baroque (Scarlatti ftw!) to prepare. One day though...

I've heard a good way to go about learning the fugues is to rewrite each voice on another staff, and learn each voice separately, with the fingering you'll use when you play all the voices at the same time. Once you can play them all with the correct fingering, combining them, in theory, should be easier.

I have just finished learning Bach's 2-part invention in d minor and I've had about 4 or 5 piano lessons in my life, some 2 years ago. Any tips? am I crazy for attempting it?

I'm not familiar with this particular fugue, but the WTC is vastly more difficult than the Inventions and Sinfonias, and the Dm Invention is probably the easiest Invention.

That said, I believe that the biggest determining factor as to whether or not you will stick it through and practice a piece enough to learn it is how much you love it, so if this fugue has caught your eye, go for it!

Okay... some useful links:

Bach's Pedagogical Order for the two and three part Inventions, as well as how to learn Invention no.1:

Lurker. Mainly when I have the urge to pretend I can play. I would love to find a teacher who I can just tell "I want to get to the point where I can pick something out of the Well Tempered Clavier and it not be nigh on impossible for me to work through" one day. One day...

The Mighty Thesaurus wrote:I believe that everything can and must be joked about.

Hawknc wrote:I like to think that he hasn't left, he's just finally completed his foe list.

JayDee wrote:I would love to find a teacher who I can just tell "I want to get to the point where I can pick something out of the Well Tempered Clavier and it not be nigh on impossible for me to work through" one day. One day...

Yeah, good private teachers are hard to find. The good news is that they are out there, you just have to be willing to put the effort into finding them. In the meantime, just keep practicing your Hanon.

"A person who persists in believing what is not true or disbelieving what is true can waste a lifetime of effort on something that is without hope of success."

0range wrote:Yeah, good private teachers are hard to find. The good news is that they are out there, you just have to be willing to put the effort into finding them. In the meantime, just keep practicing your Hanon.

0range wrote:Yeah, good private teachers are hard to find. The good news is that they are out there, you just have to be willing to put the effort into finding them. In the meantime, just keep practicing your Hanon.